During a variety of medical procedures, including vascular cannulation, it is desirable to intentionally penetrate certain internal anatomic structures to facilitate diagnostic and therapeutic objectives. However, accurate and efficient penetration may be difficult to accomplish, and may be accompanied by risks of inadvertently altering and/or harming neighboring structures.
For example, a common procedure involving external to internal penetration of an anatomic structure is the localization and cannulation of vessels for inserting intravenous (“IV”) tubes, drawing blood, or inserting an arterial catheter. However, health care practitioners may have difficulty in accurately locating the target vessel before advancing the delivery instrument or needle into the patient's tissue. Multiple placement attempts can result in discomfort to the patient and prolong the procedure time. In some instances, multiple placement attempts can damage neighboring structures such as nerves and other vessels. This problem is particularly pronounced in pediatric patients, obese patients, patients with unusual anatomy, and in acute care situations such as an emergency.
Various devices and methods have been devised to help healthcare practitioners accurately locate a vessel prior to cannulation. For example, some methods employ Doppler sonar technology to determine the location and direction of the target vessel. However, several of these methods involve insertion of a needle into the patient's subcutaneous tissue before using Doppler to accurately locate the target vessel. The user employs a sweeping motion within the patient's tissue to locate the target vessel. Such a sweeping motion may be painful to the patient and cause injury to neighboring structures. Moreover, some ultrasonic placement devices require complicated catheter construction that incorporates ultrasonic transducers and receivers in the delivery instrument.
The devices, systems, and methods disclosed herein overcome one or more of the deficiencies of the prior art.